eBay’s Global Plans

InternetNews featured a brief article on eBay’s expansion plans. It includes a great quote from an industry analyst:

“Globalization is the next logical path for growth, they do have to be cautious,” Alvarez (Meta Group) told internetnews. “So long as they don’t make the typical mistake of thinking that the rest of the world behaves as the U.S., I think they should be able to localize their business model overseas and bring the community flavor to auction sites everywhere.”

Alvarez also noted that eBay’s success overseas could hinge upon how the company continues to leverage the PayPal online payment service. eBay acquired PayPal in October 2002, and since then, the service has unveiled a localized payment service in the United Kingdom. At the conference, Whitman said she expects to grow PayPal services across eBay’s other international Web sites, and to champion further penetration of PayPal transactions on eBay in the U.S.